Review Summary

Without knowing how much the actor Neil Hopkins was paid to perform in “Detour,” I’m guessing it wasn’t enough. Like Ryan Reynolds in “Buried,” Mr. Hopkins must convey hunger, thirst, physical injury and slow asphyxiation in a confined space; unlike Mr. Reynolds, he must do so within the constraints of a barrel-scraping budget. As his character, Jackson Alder, says at one point, “That can’t be good.” And it isn’t, especially for a concept that’s no longer novel. Although the director, William Dickerson, and his writing partner, Dwight Moody, came up with their idea in 2007, since then many of us have seen “127 Hours” and a few of us have even seen the Adrien Brody misfire “Wrecked.” That leaves “Detour” with a wall of audience ennui to scale, and without a major star or a punchy plot innovation, this respectable debut is unlikely to leave a mark. — Jeannette Catsoulis